Gay Poet Walt Whitman's Landmark Work Celebrated

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/12/120705whitman.htm

Devotees and scholars of gay writer Walt Whitman are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the original edition of his seminal work, Leaves of Grass, the concise volume of 12 poems that pushed the boundaries of social decency and of poetry itself.

By rejecting the rigid structures of British meter, Whitman offered readers free-spirited bursts of consciousness that forever changed American poetry. But it is the later, voluminous version of the collection - running hundreds of pages - that is known to students across the U.S.

``The final Leaves of Grass is an enormous book, with which Whitman did not do himself a favor because a lot of the poetry is pure padding, purely hot air,'' said biographer Justin Kaplan. ``But if you go back to the original, it's a wonderfully sparse little book, something like 96 pages of absolutely remarkable, stunning poetry.''

[SaveElmer]

1. Recording of Whitman's voice...

It is believed that this is a recording of Whitman reading his poem "America".

http://www.whitmanarchive.org/audio/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I've always loved Leaves of Grass

to me it is the American collection of poetry.

[Rowdyboy]

3. My favorite is "When I heard at the close of the day"

"WHEN I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv’d
with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow’d;
And else, when I carous’d, or when my plans were accomplish’d, still I was not happy;
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh’d, singing,
inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
When I wander’d alone over the beach, and undressing, bathed, laughing with the cool waters,
and saw the sun rise,
And when I thought how my dear friend, my lover, was on his way coming,
O then I was happy;
O then each breath tasted sweeter—and all that day my food nourish’d me more—
and the beautiful day pass’d well,
And the next came with equal joy—and with the next, at evening, came my friend;
And that night, while all was still, I heard the waters roll slowly continually up the shores,
I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands, as directed to me, whispering,
to congratulate me,
For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
In the stillness, in the autumn moonbeams, his face was inclined toward me,
And his arm lay lightly around my breast—and that night I was happy."

The simplicity of his emotion is incredibly appealing to me. He asked for so very little from life and enjoyed it so vastly.